The Ben & Jamesa Podcast: Conversations About Community

In this episode, we explore why living with an open heart can feel impossible—especially for white folks—and what it might take to shift toward more connection, presence, and curiosity in daily life.

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Love isn’t just desire, provision, or possession—yet too often that’s what men are taught to believe. In this episode, we dive into 5 Things Men Don’t Understand About Love, drawing from the wisdom o…

Control culture is everywhere—at work, in our relationships, even in how we treat ourselves. But what exactly is it, and how does it quietly shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others?

In to…

We’re continuing our series on community with a focus on our very first one—family.
We’ll dig into the growing trend of adult estrangement, explore 4 common causes that fracture connection within fam…

What if our workplaces actually felt like community?

In Part 3 of our series on community, we explore how the harmful patterns of whiteness and control show up in our work lives—and what it would take…

In Part Two of Community as an Antidote to Whiteness, we name five common ways people unintentionally sabotage the very thing they say they want: community. From profit-chasing to power-seeking, avoi…

 What even is community—and how have whiteness and capitalism distorted our understanding of it? In this first episode of our new series, we explore how community has been replaced by performance, pr…

This week on The Ben and Jamesa Podcast, we’re talking about what happens when some of America’s brightest minds decide they’ve had enough—and leave. We’re exploring the growing wave of academics and…

This Fourth of July, we’re unpacking the irony of a holiday built on freedom—while whiteness continues to rely on control. We explore how white people can move from control to connection using our CA…

This week, we explore how violence—whether in relationships, policing, or foreign policy—is normalized and often celebrated in white American culture. Drawing from our experience in domestic violence…

 In this episode, we dig into the discomfort, resentment, and backlash that often show up when Black joy takes center stage—especially around holidays like Juneteenth. We explore why white supremacy …

This week, we’re joined by the brilliant Eckoes, creator behind one of our favorite social media accounts, Shit I Have a Problem With. We get into what it actually means to have a problem with someth…

In this episode, we dive into the four F’s—Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn—and how these survival responses can derail us from doing the right thing, especially in moments that call for courage, clar…

What do phrases like “pro-life,” “law and order,” and “family values” have in common?

They sound virtuous—but they’re often just control, dressed up as morality.

In this episode, Ben and Jamesa—coming …

We hear it all the time: “Of course I hate racism.”
But when we start looking a little deeper — into silence, avoidance, who we protect, and what we’re willing to give up — the picture gets murkier.

I…

If you’ve ever wondered where to begin with this podcast, this is the one. In our season 9 opener, we bring you into the heart of our work: building a community rooted in letting go of control and ch…

In this episode, we dive into the viral video of a white woman calling a Black child the N-word—and the jaw-dropping fact that she made over $600K in donations afterward. We unpack what this says abo…

 In today’s episode, Ben and Jamesa reflect on the recent blackout in Portugal and what it revealed about control, flexibility, and unexpected stillness. They also dive into insights sparked by the f…

 In this episode of Ben and Jamesa, we dive into the intersection of neurodivergence and social justice, exploring what it means to live as a neurospicy family in a world built for neurotypical norms…

In this episode, we explore what it really means to step outside your comfort zone—whether that’s moving across the world, engaging with unfamiliar identities, or sitting with uncomfortable truths ab…